Division Breeds Diversion

The Princeton Proposal on Christian Unity (In One Body Through the Cross) claims that “division breeds never-ending diversion from authentic mission” (section 35), and offers a shrewd diagnosis of how this occurs.

It happens when “the distinct identities of our churches tempt us to relish the special marks that distinguish our communities from others, and not to glory in the confession of the crucified Lord we share in common” (section 32). We can relish traditional doctrinal commitments, but can also distinguish ourselves as “family-friendly” or “inclusive” or “traditional” or “1928 Prayer Book” churches.

Our distinctive identities lack “the winnowing and transformative power of the gospel.” Instead of knitting human beings together into one body, churches “all too easily enter into complex collusions with divisions of class, culture, ethnicity, or status,” and especially with race. In this way, churches “become artifacts of specific cultures, and their mission becomes the reinforcing of folkways” (section 33). 

When we understandably “seek to intensify and extend loyalty to our traditions, in order to enhance international connections and ward off internal schismatic pressures, we risk emphasizing precisely those distinctive features – liturgical forms, confessional documents, practice of primacy, patterns of spiritual experience and traditions of exegesis – that divide us from others.” We risk “enhancing denominational loyalty by ‘boasting’ of something more unique than the gospel of Jesus Christ” (section 34).

As can be seen, these diversions from mission are not peccadilloes. They are rooted in and reflect deep compromise and faithlessness to the demands of the gospel.